Succubus Nights
by Qualapec the She-Wolf
Summary: The Sanzo party comes to a mountain guarded by fanatics. Deep within they find a town made up entirely of beautiful, vampiric women. But in the heat of ecstasy will our heroes be able to devide the lies from the truth, the predators from prey?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki or anything else that anybody in the known universe could sue me for. I own nothing.

**AN: Hi. If you clicked on the little link to my story, thanks. If you read the chapter and want more, thanks again ten-fold. This is the introduction, I hope to actually introduce the succubi next chapter. And more so I hope that they're interesting, complex characters and not mary-sues. But hey, they're succubi they're supposed to be perfect and strong and all the other cool vamp things. Plus they get to make out with the Sanzo party, so I think Mary-Sue is an inevitable. So hopefully they'll be the good kind. Better yet they won't be Mary Sue at all. In any case, time for the author to stop ranting. Enjoy!**

Succubus Nights

The air was cold. Something about mountain mist always made the air freeze. Naturally the stupid monkey was complaining about it. As was the stupid kappa. Freaking _prima donnas_. Sanzo just closed his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of argument coming from the backseat. He had a headache, it was one of those magic headaches that idiots would never fail to give him. You'd think they'd find some better way of entertaining themselves.

Yet, wasn't that the nature of idiots? To annoy all those around them with an IQ above negative 2?

The anger reached its boiling point; Sanzo released a shot from his banishing gun into the air, then rose to his feet, "For the love-"

"Sanzo," Hakkai said softly from his position in the drivers seat.

"Shut up, I'm talking!" Turning his attention back to the now cowering fools in the backseat he got ready to let loose a string of death threats and insults, not to mention words that priests ought not say.

Naturally, that was the exact moment Hakkai decided to stop the stupid car.

Sanzo was thrown forward, or backward however you decided to look at it. The backs of his legs bent against the jeep's windshield, and his back slapped down with incredible force against the hood of the car. Hard enough to have the wind knocked out of him. His sight spun with sunspots and his headache increased from "idiot" headache to the "_I_ am an idiot" headache.

"Hakkai…" Sanzo said, trying to keep his composure. Not because he was being polite. Simply because he didn't want to aggravate any possible injuries. "Why did you stop when I was standing up in the _freaking_ car!"

The thing where he tried to keep his composure had never worked well for him. Despite his injuries he sat up.

He automatically sensed it, the way they were all staring in front of them. Sanzo didn't even wait for Hakkai to say "We have company" Before the blond monk had his gun drawn, and pointed expertly down the road. He was always up for a nice demon thrashing. However, there was the little issue of being thrown against the hood of the car. He swung his legs around so he could use his knee to steady his shot.

They weren't demons.

They were regular men, in long dark robes, and crossbows in hand. Sanzo took in every detail from their weapons to their unshaved stubble. They had quivers on their backs, appropriately sewn into their cloaks for easy access when they needed another bolt for their weapons. As for the weapons themselves, they were crudely made. Not to say they wouldn't kill him from this distance. They just weren't likely to hit him. There was always the chance they compensated for aim by poisoning the bolts. So getting hit would be a bad idea. Then there was that look in their eyes, not bloodthirsty bandits, something else. Something worse.

Fanatics. They were fanatics. Men who believed they were doing the right thing. No matter how evil the cause, how dirty the deed.

Sanzo pulled back the hammer on his weapon. Not like any of that mattered. They were in his way, that's all he needed to know.

"Go back!" Goon number one said.

Sanzo replied, "And what if we don't?"

Goon number one twitched a finger; suddenly the other six raised their crossbows. Not to mention the fifty or sixty more weapons Sanzo could just _feel_ trained on them from the surrounding forest. "I'm sorry to hear that. Because we need to get through, and you're in my way."

"We cannot let you pass."

Sanzo was about to come back with something widely undiplomatic when he heard Hakkai whisper something in his ear, "Sanzo…we can't fight them all, but we might be able to break through their wall."

"Can you raise a shield if I drive?" Gojyo spoke this time. Gods knew they wouldn't tempt fate by putting Sanzo behind the wheel. Goku…well that would have just been plain suicide.

Hakkai nodded, "Possibly…but it'll look suspicious if we switch places."

Sanzo decided that the best he could do was to keep the old man talking, see if he could get more information. Hell, for all he knew they were busting through the guards into the prison walls. They might let something out, or worse, find themselves in the middle of some uber-demon feeding frenzy. "Why can't we pass?"

"You cannot pass!" The man yelled again.

_Great._ Sanzo thought. _A goddamn broken record._

In his experience you just didn't get much info out of a drone set on "loop". His banishing gun wouldn't turn them to dust, but it was at least a .45 in regular gun terms, it'd kill them all good and proper.

"Wait…" Goku said, "Those guys…they're _human_."

Sanzo only stared at the monkey demon, "So? Are humans less capable of evil than demons? You're a dumbass I know, but you should know at least that in our time on this little venture."

"I know Sanzo, but-"

"No buts! You gonna fight or aren't you?"

Goku didn't have time to argue, otherwise Sanzo knew he would have. A bolt flew by, narrowly missing him. Sanzo had to rethink about that weapon's aim.

"Demons!" Top-goon yelled.

Crap…having demons as his companions didn't really make him that many friends. Looked like they were in for a fight with humans.

Hakkai managed to get a shield up before the next barrage of bolts came their way. They shattered against the wall of royal blue chi. Damn. There were a lot more than he'd originally thought. And they could hide themselves just as well as any demon. Perhaps even a little better.

That was when the infantry came in, the foot soldiers. Swarms of men in dark clothes came from the forests, appearing from the mists like wraiths. Long, strange sabers in their hands. Sanzo, couldn't think he'd ever seen any weapons like that. Glowing with a dark, purple aura. They were enchanted, by dark magic. Which could only mean-

Holy shit.

"Hakkai! Drop the shield and shoot the foot soldiers!"

"We'll be turned into pincushions!"

"Trust me, damn it!"

Hakkai dropped the shield and blew away a goon coming at him from the front. The man fell back from the force of the chi blast, and he took three more with him. But even at that they couldn't even dent the assault. Gojyo was already swinging his weapon around whip-like in an attempt to keep a barrier around them. That didn't stop the soldiers, or mercenaries, or cultists or whatever they were from throwing themselves into the chained blade.

"Are these folks insane?" Gojyo yelled, "They'll be torn to shreds. And you could help you know!"

Sanzo didn't pay them any attention, he had a plan.

Another rain of bolts shot through the forests towards them.

That wasn't part of said plan.

"Sanzo-"

"Hakkai put the barrier back up!" That in and of itself was a risk, if those weapons could do what he thought they could, but they were lacking in the choice department. The sounds of bolts sinking into the flesh of the infantry were all around them. Arrows shot from the goon marksmen slaughtered the majority of their own swordsmen. Even through the barrier, Sanzo could smell the blood. The bile. The death.

_The death of a master to save his apprentice._

The priest forced himself to shake the whisper of a thought from his mind. This was an inopportune time to get his old familiar haunts.

As soon as it had come, the whisper was gone, a gentle gust of freezing air on a summers day. Nothing more, nothing less. "Hakkai! Take off!" These humans were more trouble than he wanted to handle, besides, that would be really anticlimactic if they were taken out by a bunch of fanatic demon-hunters.

They had maybe a split second of an opening: _maybe_. As soon as they had to stop firing to reload, Hakkai dropped his shield and put Hakkuryu into gear. The jeep shot off in a cloud of gravel and dust, appropriately kicked off into the faces of those trying to kill them. It was only when the jeep started to move that Sanzo remembered he was still on the hood. To keep from sliding off, he steadied himself with his left hand on the windshield. Hakkuryu shot into the cluster of swordsmen surrounding them. Hakkai slammed into the wall, and they bounced off the car like flies on a windshield. Plus the sound of shattering bones and breaking bodies. It was like driving into a pit of blades. Sanzo let loose a constant barrage of gunfire into the crowd. When he had to reload, Hakkai was forced to compensate with a quick burst of chi blasts. Sanzo could hear the sounds of Goku and Gojyo whacking away trouble from their six. One managed to get through and drive his sword deep into the jeep. A metallic wail came from somewhere inside the hunk of metal.

This was where it got tricky, if the marksmen managed to reload before Hakkai could get them out of the swarm of swordsmen they were thoroughly screwed. Because Hakkai's shields would be useless after the enchanted blades sliced right through them. Sanzo knew they'd either be sliced up into tiny pieces or skewered with bolts or both.

One of the goons managed to get a hold on Sanzo's leg, it was the icy cold grip of a desperate man. Knowing this man would journey to hell to complete his quest, Sanzo just wasn't quite ready to go with him. He aimed and shot the man point blank, the bullet tearing a deep, ugly hole right between his insane eyes. The fanatic slipped off into the growing river of bodies.

As luck would have it, the jeep managed to break through the seven archers that had stopped them to begin with took aim. Sanzo acknowledged with his own weapon.

Click.

Shit.

"Goku!"

"I'm on it!"

The monkey demon was a blur, shooting past Sanzo and landing in front of the marksmen. He blew them to the side with a single swipe of his crimson red staff. Naturally it wasn't over. The maybe hundreds of more marksmen in the woods let them have it. Sanzo saw Hakkai try to stop and raise a shield. He slapped his empty gun hard against the hood of the jeep. "Keep driving! Gojyo, take care of it!"

The half-breed mumbled something about making him do all the work then turned his bladed chain into a virtual shield against the bolts. As they passed him, Sanzo reached out a hand to Goku and swung him up onto the hood of the jeep beside him.

Fortunately, the chain stopped most all the bolts, and the few that got through were nowhere near where it counted.

Sighs of relief came from everyone in the jeep. Demons they could handle. But those humans had been…crazed. As enraged as any demon. Hakkai drove for maybe another fifteen minutes before he stopped the car and sagged against the steering wheel. "Dear god, Sanzo. What the hell were you thinking?" Hakkai didn't sound angry, just thoroughly exhausted.

"Yeah, I'd like to know myself!" Gojyo said exasperated, "But more importantly I'd like to know what was _up _with those people. They were freakin' nuts!"

"'They were freakin' nuts' gee, I hope someday I'll inherit your talent for coming up with such miraculous theories. As for what I was thinking…" Sanzo ran a hand through his blond hair, "We couldn't count on your shields, Hakkai. If those swords were what I think they are…wouldn't have done any good. They woulda sliced right through 'em."

"How do ya know that?" Goku asked.

"Because they have similar enchantments to that of my banishing gun. They were filled with hate for demons. You're a demon; your energy comes from you."

Hakkai nodded, catching on. Sanzo knew that if he didn't have somebody on ship that could follow his train of thought he'd go insane. "So…I would only have blocked the bolts. We still would have gotten turned into mince meat."

"Yup."

"So…" Goku begain after a long silence, "What'd they want?"

Gojyo spared them of the stupid reply, "Us dead."

Sanzo sighed, rubbing his temple, during the course of the tussle, his headache had gotten even worse. "Whatever. Not our problem, we just need to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Amen to that." The sprawled out Gojyo said from somewhere in the back seat.

Hakkai raised a hand, "Um…Sanzo."

"What is it?"

"If we're going to leave, could you and Goku please climb off the hood?"

Sanzo did as asked; he couldn't wait to get off this shit mountain. Reaching into his sleeve he pulled out his carton of cigarettes. He flipped one out and lit it. Taking a long, deep breath of sickening smoke. Filling his lungs with tar may not have been the best way to relax, but what the hell.

The monk then considered what had happened as Hakkai healed Hakkuryu. There were a lot of those people, and a lot to spare. Judging from their appearance, they'd been camping out in the woods for a long time. Sanzo couldn't get over the fact that a whole shit-load of humans had almost overwhelmed them. If they could give the legendary Sanzo party a run for their money, what horrible creatures did Sanzo have to look foreword too? Sanzo guessed those people didn't seek out demons. If some came their way they'd slay them but for the most part Sanzo assumed their main point was to keep something in.

He let loose a gray cloud of smoke into the frosty air. This day just kept getting better, and better, and better…

Chapter End:  
AN: Hi, sorry. No vamps yet. Trust me, it gets better. For now I just have a couple of questions for anyone reviewing. Did I keep everyone in character? And what could I improve upon? Thank you for reading. Hope to see ya'll again for the next chapter. Which by the way will be up either today or tomorrow, so keep lookout.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own neither Saiyuki or anything else that anybody in the known universe could sue me for. I own nothing.

AN: Enjoy the chapter. Don't forget to push the happy little review button. Please? Also, somebody asked if I could include other characters a little more in the story ( it is a little Sanzo centric isn't it?) the answer is yes, I will include other characters more in later chapters. But…sorry, not this time.

Succubus Nights

Hakkuryu's injuries healed nicely. Aside from a couple of bumps and bruises his only real injury had been the sword driven into the hood. They drove up the winding mountain roads; Hakkai was speeding, as usual. Sanzo was thinking about what had transpired. Humans had almost killed them. That was bad.

"This fog's too thick." Hakkai said leaning into the steering wheel and squinting to try and see better.

Sanzo flicked off the ashes of his cigarette and glared at Hakkai, "I do hope you don't suggest we stop."

"No," Hakkai said carefully, "I'm just saying we should remain in one place until the fog lifts." At Sanzo's brittle glare he continued, "It'll be dark soon, then we really won't be able to see anything."

Sanzo bit down hard on the length of tobacco, "…Fine…we stop until the fog lifts, no fires. No attention."

Hakkai nodded, little snob was probably really pleased with himself on the inside. Typical.

VVVVV

They stopped on the side of the road to set up bedrolls. As per usual, Hakkuryu lay next to Hakkai, dreaming whatever dreams a miniature dragon has. Gojyo was snoring excessively loud and mumbling something about booze or women or some such nonsense. Goku lay on his back, with his tongue hanging out and a goofy smile on his face. Out of all of them, Sanzo was sure Goku was least susceptible to nightmares.

Sanzo himself, was sitting up, robes stopped haphazardly at his waist. With his thin black undershirt and practically bare arms, it was cold. But that didn't really matter. He was too nervous to sleep. It was so strange; almost as soon as they bedded down he couldn't help but think there was something watching them. Of course it was probably just jitters from the stupid nicotine.

He'd taken it upon himself to keep watch, at least until he could sleep right. Another headache ravaged his temple. Damn. And he'd thought he'd gotten rid of the stupid thing when they'd been unpacking. Of course, the three or four times he'd smoked since then probably hadn't helped. He closed his eyes for only a moment, trying to rest them. When he did, the priest remembered he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before either. He rested his head on the pillow, the headache didn't go away but at least it subsided. That in and of itself was enough to keep him there. But as he drifted into sleep, there was one little nagging thought that plagued his mind. Sanzo tried to put his finger on it, but he just couldn't. He gave up after a moment or so, and drifted away into his regularly scheduled nightmare.

_He saw bodies. Endless rivers of cloaked, rotting corpses in a vast desert. The sky was blue without a cloud marking its topaz surface. Bolts stuck from their backs. Dried, caked on blood hardened their soaked robes. Insane, lifeless eyes stared back at him._

_Suddenly, the rotting, insane-eyed human bodies transformed into bloodthirsty demon bodies. The bolts changed to bullet holes. The desert changed to a mountain landscape, with trees bathed in demonic blood. Alone he stood in the middle of the slaughter._

_The death._

_The death of a master to save his apprentice._

_The random sacrifice of demons to avenge a master._

_The eyes changed, into the vicious human eyes he'd seen that morning. They came alive and charged him in waves of hate and pain. Knowing they'd tear him to shreds, he raised the pistol to his own temple._

_Click._

_And that was when he felt the hundreds of demonic claws and teeth rip his sinewy frame to pieces. Through the endless pain he smelled something, a smell of burning flesh._

VVVVV

Hakkai's own sleep had been a long time coming. After being the one behind the wheel all day, not to mention healer and all the chi fighting he'd done when they were attacked. He was exhausted, and at first happy to get some rest.

Then the dream came.

_A thousand words not said to one loved. A thousand times to die. A thousand demons murdered by his hand in coldest blood. A thousand drops of blood that littered his frame. A thousand final screams. A thousand begs for mercy. A thousand times relived in his mind. A thousand vengeful spirits coming from the abyss to claim their killer. A thousand claws caressing him as they pulled him down._

_They offered death. A thousand millennia of suffering for his sins unto them. As they pulled him into the heat of hell he heard everlasting screams of agony, and smelled the sickly stench of burning flesh._

VVVVV

Gojyo would have preferred to curl up next to a beautiful woman, in a warm town somewhere. Not only did he not have a woman, he didn't even have a fire. Stupid, high-and-mighty monk. None the less, he'd camped out before, and was just as tired as anybody else.

_He licked soft skin. Working his way up from the base of her stomach, to her soft luscious lips. All the world disappeared. He cared nothing for their journey, or for his companions. For a heartbeat his eyes dashed away from her beautiful, perfect form to the side of the room. They lay in a cluster._

_Hakkai seemed the most peaceful, two bite marks in his neck where the blood had been drained. Only a little was actually left to pour out onto his Chinese tunic. Then there was Sanzo, his lilac eyes staring into emptiness, glazed over for the last time. Gojyo had done the deed himself. It was he who strangled the monk, and then fed post mortem beside his lover. Goku also stared blankly, even though his heart still beat. A thrall, nothing more._

_She had shown him so much. Enlightened him. Given him more than he'd ever known. He kissed her, running his hands down her body. In a moment of passionate heat, he bit her neck, letting her blood pool into his mouth. She returned the bite and he felt his blood pool into her. Forever bound in immortal love._

_And then he smelled the burning flesh._

VVVVV

_He ran. He ran like he'd never had to in his life. They were behind him. Crying for his blood, trapped in the heated chase. His breath grew heavy and his muscles ached as they begged for oxygen. The fog. The fog was heavier than air, he felt like the more he needed it the more weighed down he became._

_The hunters came from behind him, where the fog held him to the ground, it seemed they glided across it. Faster they came until they were upon him. Hakkai gripped his legs pulling him down for a final time. Gojyo his metallic weapon through his back, into the ground. The crescent moon weapon sliced open his back though his guts, into the ice cold ground. Pinning him._

_He felt hot breath on the back of his neck. Sanzo. Then the bite on his throat. Stinging hot pain. Sanzo drank all that flowed from the open bite mark. His blood was being drank._

_By Sanzo._

_By his Sun._

_His neck was the first to become numb, slowly, as more blood surged out, the numbness spread. All that was left was the freezing cold as death slowly advanced on him. The only sign he was even still alive was the pounding as his heart slowed. Then stopped. Then came the smell of burning flesh._

What?

Goku's eyes slid open and he looked around the camp.

Oh god, Sanzo.

"Hakkai!" Goku yelled.

VVVVV

Sanzo felt it before he awoke. As a matter of fact that's what awoke him. Nothing gets you up like the feel of the skin melting off your body. He saw his leg was on fire. He grunted and leaped from the bed, rolling on the ground, desperate to put out the fire before it spread. Although the dirt rubbing into the injury was like literally rubbing salt in the wound. Hakkai was already dashing over, Goku was next, and then came Gojyo.

_Stupid Kappa,_ Sanzo thought hazily, _Always last to show up when I need help._

Of course that was one of few coherent thoughts through the pain. Luckily, Goku already had water. But the dumbass dumped it on in such force that it tore some of the burned skin right off. That hurt. But at least it put the fire out, which was the immediate threat to his life. He lay on the ground, breathing heavily, as Hakkai sealed up the wound.

"You stupid son of a bitch."

Sanzo lifted his head and glared at the green-eyed man, "Come again?"

"Your stupid cigarettes. You set _yourself_ on fire when you fell asleep with it in hand."

"I'm not that stupid. Someone else must have done it." Of course there was the chance Hakkai was right. If Sanzo could recall something nagging him as he drifted to sleep.

"You know people die like that?"

"What the hell are you? My mother?" Sanzo bit the sentence off as Hakkai dropped the healing spell. "What do you think you're doing?"

Hakkai smiled sweetly back at him, "I don't have enough strength to heal it properly, but hopefully you'll think twice next time before you almost turn yourself to cinders…Now I'll get a bandage and disinfectants so we can at least kill anything that's in there. The biggest concern with burns is always infection." He walked off mumbling something about how 'unbelievable' it was.

Sanzo glared at Goku, who had remained quiet, staring at him the entire time. "What are you lookin' at?"

"I was worried!"

"I'm fine! I was fine! I will always _be_ fine!" Built up irritation from the whole goddamn situation brought out the best in him. Being who he was, he took it out on Goku no matter how little sense it made to do so.

It all came back, the dream, bodies coming to life and tearing him to shreds. He brought a hand up to his temple to block out the images as best he could. He hadn't had a dream that vivid in quite a while. He looked around, fog and cloud cover were all around them. Even managing to veil the moon, without veiling it's light. What the hell?

He was suddenly reminded of Chin Yissou. The a centipede demon who's father and clan Hakkai had brutally murdered. Hadn't that assface used fog as a scare tactic?

No way…that guy was long, long, long dead.

But, somebody else could have mastered a similar technique. Fog was actually pretty simple for most mages once they got the hang of it. Okay, assuming the fog was artificial, what the hell was causing it? There would have to be a pretty powerful mage somewhere on the mountain to summon a cloud of this magnitude. Any such mage would almost have to be demon, but no demon aura surrounded it. There were rumors of human mages that strong, but only in places far to the west, as far as Sanzo had heard there were no such human mages in Shang Gri La.

That's too weird. Demon made sense, those drones at the front door attacked as soon as they saw the awesome-threesome. With swords that could cut right through demon energy barriers. Those bastards were equipped and prepared to fight demons in fold. They hadn't followed them into the mountain, so that could only mean they didn't want to abandon their post in case whatever evil nasty had this mountain for a home made an escape for it.

Yet the fog held no demon energy. Demon energy could be masked, but it would still show in the energy used to create the fog.

It could have been the humans. It would make sense Sanzo wouldn't have heard about a mage that powerful living so far in the middle of nowhere. No surprise that word didn't get around that fast…

Sanzo sighed; he was trying to come up with an answer to something he couldn't possibly come up with without more information. As hesitant as he was to admit it he was not freaking all knowing, and he knew he couldn't think as straight as he wanted to when the burn on his leg still hurt like hell.

"Eww," Gojyo said randomly, "It's all gooey and meaty."

"Just die…" The priest hissed. He wouldn't get any mileage from asking Gojyo anything. So, he voiced his concerns to his only possible intellectual equal. "Hakkai?"

"Yes?" Hakkai was already at work cleaning and dressing the wound. With every new treatment it sent new waves of agony up Sanzo's nerves.

"Anything about this fog seem familiar to you?"

For a moment, Hakkai's face twisted in thought; "Now that I think about it…it does seem like what Chin Yissou used to hold us in one place while he tried to pick us off one by one…"

See? That was why he always asked Hakkai these things.

"Well," Gojyo interjected, "Isn't artificial fog just supposed to look like…well, fog?"

Sanzo was about to snap something when Hakkai told the half-breed in a calm voice, "Artificial fog is never exactly like real fog. Creation always holds something of its creator. In the case of real fog that creator is Mother Nature herself. But when it's made by a human or a demon, it's wrong because there is no way a human could be anywhere near as pure as the world around us."

Goku and Gojyo had blank stares.

Hakkai sighed, "Okay, the Earth itself can never be corrupted. There's always purity to the creation that comes from nature. Fog, plants, lakes. You name it. When a human, who has a personality, whether good or bad, creates something it always holds something of it's creator-"

There was a rustle in the bushes. All armed in the blink of an eye. Sanzo, his gun drawn and the scripture lain over his shoulders (Fortunately it had been unharmed in the fire). Hakkai was already gathering a ball of his chi, or what was left of it anyway. Gojyo and Goku had their staffs ready to rumble.

A woman stepped out. In a revealing, white robe. In the moonlit fog she looked pale to the point of luminance. Long perfect legs were exposed where the robe ended. She was barefoot, with long, black hair draped over her perfect, hourglass frame. Her eyes were gray, light enough to look almost white. Even at that they were only a shade lighter than her skin. She still looked healthy, despite the white complexion. On top of it all the top of her robe was opened in such a way as to leave something to be desired.

"Hello…" She spoke with velvet smooth, yet it was husky in a way too. But not so much that it dominated the silkiness to her voice, "I am Freydis Nahema. Mistress of this town, Queen of all free Vampires."

VVVVV Chapter End

AN: Howdy ya'll. Thanks again for reading all the way through the chapter. Well, I promised the succubus would appear. But unfortunately I'm too tired to write anything else that may be coherent so I'm just gonna leave it with that minor cliffhanger. Sorry, the horrific dreams took up way more time and thought than I thought they would so. Yeah. I'm leaving it at that. Please, click the little review button and tell me what it did good, and what I could improve on. Thanks.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki or anything else that anybody in the known universe could sue me for. I own nothing.

AN: Howdy ya'll. I'm back. They're back. The Succubus are back!…Considering we were only gone for three days that's pretty darn good if ya ask me. Anyway, carry on.

Succubus Nights

A vampire? No that couldn't be right, they were all wiped out when that horde of Slayers wiped out Dracula a hundred years ago.

"A freakin' what?"

Sanzo sighed, there was the stunningly articulate Gojyo. She was gorgeous, and managed to make even Sanzo's pants feel like they were one size too small. But he knew the dangers, probably better than anybody, with the possible exception Hakkai. Gojyo didn't, or didn't care to. Which meant Sanzo would have to deal with the little bitch, "Hi fiend." He pulled back the hammer on his banishing gun, "Bye fiend."

She smiled those silky, ruby lips. "You intend to shoot me."

"Yep."

Gojyo. Goddamn idiot that he was stepped in the way, "Hey! She's just a woman!"

"She's a _vampire_ you _idiot_! Get out of my way or I'll shoot her through you!"

Suddenly, Miss Nahema calmly stepped out from behind Gojyo, "There is no need for that…Genjo Sanzo."

Sanzo snorted, "Right, it's supposed to surprise me you know my name? Every demon from here to India knows what I look like."

She smiled, revealing long, pointed canines, even a little longer than a demon's. A little, not much, still enough to tap into a lethal blood vessel. "No, you're a Sanzo priest with blond hair, violet eyes, and you carry a gun made to banish creatures of the night, and since there are only one, or two other Sanzo priests in existence it stands to reason you are Genjo Sanzo."

"You obsess over logic or something?"

"Sorry. Us poor vamps have an obsession with math," She laughed richly, "You know, back when we were still primitive we couldn't stop counting things. More advanced math was only an evolutionary step away."

Goku ran up behind Sanzo, "Sanzo! She's a vamp! How do we kill her! Isn't it a silver bullet to the heart!"

The vampire, Nahema, smiled, simply amused. "No…that's werewolves."

Sanzo smiled his best crocodilian grin, "But if you really know your mythology, any bullet from this gun will kill you."

"Which is exactly why you should put it down, it would be tragic if you killed a possible business partner because your finger slipped." She was totally unconcerned, that bothered Sanzo, or maybe she just had a killer poker face.

His arm straightened as she took a step towards him, his finger tightening on the trigger, "Not another step."

That was the first time he saw surprise cross her features, if only for a second before it was right back to the come hither sexual seductress, she was no stranger to switching faces. No stranger to playing her prey. Sanzo was sure that if he shot enough of those masks away he'd uncover what she really was sooner or later. A monster. That's what all vampires were at their core.

"Of course…you gentlemen must be cold out here in the middle of nowhere…Come to my town, it isn't far from here. You will have a warm bed to sleep in, and an even warmer companion if you so choose."

Stupid Gojyo. Sanzo sighed the second she offered and Gojyo went over and grabbed her arm. The priest could have sworn he'd seen that exact same stance in a movie once. "We'd be happy to take you up on your offer."

What food was to Goku, women were to Gojyo.

_Note to self_, Sanzo thought, _Kill. Stupid. Kappa._

She smiled again, in much the same way Sanzo had earlier, silver eyes glinting for a heartbeat, "There will be food."

Goku was gone from Sanzo's side in a heartbeat, always thinking with his stomach.

Only Hakkai remained beside him. He still had his gun trained on the vampiric female.

Her smile widened, like she knew she had them, "Then again, you must remember this is a mountain. And the weather can be quite fickle. It would be a shame if you froze to death all alone up here…"

"I'd rather freeze than have my blood drained by some vampire whore."

Hakkai, who had remained silent until then placed a hand on Sanzo's shoulder. The priest felt the malicious intent before he even gazed into the woods. Torchlight, speckled all over the fog-coated forest in the direction they'd come from. Shit…at least a hundred of those humans from earlier were following them. With a glance at Hakkai's evergreen colored eyes, Sanzo understood they were cornered. He hated that. He hated that a lot.

"Sanzo," Hakkai whispered, "If you kill her we'll have nowhere to go. We don't know this mountain, and those bastards chasing us probably do."

That was the one problem with having someone around who was his intellectual equal, when Sanzo found himself angry and unable to think clearly Hakkai was always the voice of reason. Got really irritating sometimes. "Fine…" he said, and lowered his gun.

Nahema grinned, triumphant bitch she was, "Come now, we don't have much time before the guardians are on us."

How the hell did he get talked into these things?

VVVVV

Hakkai and Sanzo walked behind the three up front, she was speaking to them, soft tones promising them food and women. Hakkai was having a hard time thinking right. Something about how the fog was dim and soothing against his eyes, differing from the usual sharp tones and edges of trees. There was certainly something soothing about it.

But there was also something wrong. Unnatural. And any thoughts of peace were immediately silenced by thoughts of the dream he'd had. God…it had been so real. Not to mention fitting. Now that he thought about it, the only reason he'd awoken from it at all had been the smell of Sanzo burning that skin off his leg.

That was another problem; he hadn't been able to heal Sanzo's leg properly. That was also bothering. It was at least a third degree burn. Sanzo should have felt the heat immediately and woken up. That could only mean that he was trapped in his own dark dream.

Of course that didn't naturally leap to drugs, they both had gory pasts. So did Gojyo and he seemed happy as a rabid wolf.

Hence the problem. When Hakkai looked at Gojyo, there was a new glint in the crimson eyes when he looked at Nahema. Not what he usually had when looking at stunningly beautiful women. When that happened usually his eyes would look more playful, like he was a teenage boy again.

Wait, bad analogy, Gojyo never really grew up did he?

But what he saw now, was more like when Gojyo was fighting. That ecstatic lust for battle and blood. Like a predator. That was the look in his eyes now. There was always the chance he'd been sent a different kind of dream…

Hakkai couldn't help but smile. Perhaps he was paranoid, and it was nothing but the usual bad dreams they were no strangers too.

Yeah, and it was just a coincidence a female vampire shows up just after they have horrible nightmares.

Like one of Hakkai's favorite authors said in one of his books: _"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face."_

That would be wise, wouldn't it? Just remain cautious, he knew Sanzo could look after himself. But Goku was far too trusting for his own good, and Gojyo…No telling what was up with Gojyo. Whatever it was, Hakkai had a feeling he would have to watch his own back for a while. Even around his friends.

"Sanzo?"

"What is it now you good for nothing?" Sanzo was clutching his leg, "Seriously, what's the point of keeping you around if you can't even heal right."

Maybe not around Sanzo, he seemed to be perfectly himself. Even if himself wasn't exactly perfect. "I'm sorry, but it's your own damn fault and you know it." This earned him a glare.

"…So, is it just my nicotine, dash, pain enhanced stupor, or is Gojyo not quite himself?"

"So you noticed it too?"

"Yep."

"So you had the dreams too?"

"Yep."

"Drugged fog?"

"What else?"

VVVVV

Goku couldn't believe Sanzo. Why did he always have to be so untrusting of everybody? Nahema seemed nice enough, and she sure as hell _looked_ nice enough. Yeah the fangs were strange but all demons had fangs. But her ears weren't all pointed like they were supposed to be. She said something earlier, about being the queen of all free vampires or something? "Hey, you said something about free vampires earlier?"

"…They are my people. Vampires who fled the purging in Europe. I taught them how to feed sparingly. How to feed on blood without taking too much. Who to feed on."

"By who to feed on you wouldn't mean Sanzo priests would you?"

She smiled, although she cast a silent glance in the direction of the limping monk, "No. We are predators, stronger, faster than humans; we are what nature intended us to be. Limiters. Weeding out the sick and the old. These are my personal beliefs, many of my clan follow them as I do."

That worried Goku, only a little. Many? Did that mean some of them didn't?

No matter how good the food was, he'd have to keep on his toes. That kind of went without saying. See? He wasn't always the stupid monkey Sanzo or Gojyo had him pegged for.

_That's right, Gojyo…_

There was defiantly something wrong with the water sprite. Something seriously _wrong_. The way he carried himself, the way he looked at Nahema. It was wrong. He was wrong. That was the best way Goku could describe it. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Now that he thought about it, he'd never fought a vampire before. Maybe things would go south and he'd get the chance.

Yeah, a part of him wanted that, but there was another part of him that wanted to see it turn out good, just so he could prove Sanzo wrong for once. She sounded like a nice, reasonable vampire.

VVVVV

Sanzo saw it, at first he thought it was the fanatics from earlier catching up to them. But was it turned out it was a pair of sentries standing guard at an opening in a large wall. They were wearing chain mail that didn't come down much farther than Nahema's robe. In other words not entirely functional. As they passed she didn't say anything, only nodded at Nahema and continued her vigil.

That could have meant a couple of different things. Was she used to visitors coming in? Or was she just extremely well trained? The latter made just as much sense as the former. Those humans had given them all a run for their money, it would only make sense that these vampires were well trained fighters. For defending themselves or for food, either way Sanzo was sure these vampires found themselves in for a fight more than once.

Meanwhile he ran over everything he knew about vampires. Stake to the heart, fire, sunlight, in this individual case, banishing gun. Sanzo would have been surprised if the Maten Scripture had no effect on them. That went without saying. His scripture had the powers to open the gates of oblivion, it could take anyone there, human, demon, or otherwise. It didn't have any effect on gods, they made it, but it was doubtful these creatures of the night had ascended to that level of power yet.

They walked toward a large, old mansion at the center of town, all old Chinese style homes and businesses (although it didn't look like anybody really sold anything). All around them, things were slithering out of the darkness, peaking from the shadows of alleyways. He felt the white eyes all around him, hoping to sink their teeth into his throat.

Stupid hunting party or no this had been an epically bad idea. They'd been dragged into a hornet's nest. It was possible Nahema had been telling the truth, but that didn't mean all the vampires in her midst followed her lead. Also possible that this whole thing was just one big fat trap they'd walked right into being the geniuses they were.

Suddenly, from the roof of the large mansion a figure leapt down from the Chinese rafters. Landing elegantly on bare feet and with legs to challenge Nahema's. A new vampire stood before them. This one was a platinum blond; almost white hair, with the same snow skin. Her eyes were the same shade. The only possible difference between this new visitor and Nahema herself was that this new vamp was quite a bit shorter. Not to mention younger when she'd originally been changed. Her fangs were longer. On top of everything she also looked like a spoiled brat.

"Sister…" The new vampire hissed, "You bring arrivals?"

"Silence, Trivania. I offered them my sanctuary, they will stay here un-harmed."

"But sister! He is a Sanzo priest!" Trivania yelled, then hungrily licked her lips, "Also a fine…fine specimen. You cannot seriously expect us to let him walk out of here."

Sanzo always hated it when he was right about the bad day thing.

VVVVV Chapter end

AN: Okay, I'm posting. As a favor please review. I know it's been a couple of days but I've been busy. That's my excuse. Please, please review. Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki or anything else that anybody in the known universe could sue me for. I own nothing.

AN: Again, sorry, but I've had a massive swarm of ideas lately. For instance I'm coming out with another Saiyuki story soon called Coliseum. Going along with my love of vampires is my love of werewolves. In this new fiction Sanzo finds himself in a town with sadistic inhabitants who're pitching him into a gladiator style battle with a werewolf. Look for it soon! Sorry for the little advertisement there, anyway. ONWARD!!!

Succubus Nights

"Trivania…" Nahema said dangerously.

There was a silent warning exchanged between the two "sisters". They weren't biological sisters; even Sanzo could see that, so they must have just shared the same sire. Whatever that warning was, Trivania acknowledged, hissed once, baring her long pointed fangs, if at all possible they were even longer than Nahema's.

But Sanzo had learned something from the conversation, albeit a bad thing. Apparently these vampires had a very strict law system. Probably why they hadn't been attacked yet. Nahema was offering them "Sanctuary" Whatever that meant. Chances were that she could lift that anytime she wanted to. Or worse yet, there may be some vampire law they were sure to break, thus pissing off the vampires, thus death.

Reluctantly, he followed Nahema and the others into the large mansion. Immediately assessing the possibility of fighting from this location.

Maybe. He saw the door to a basement leading underneath the mansion in a storage room to the left. Their best chance was probably from somewhere in there. The rest of the house was filled with windows or doors or something else a vampire could very easily break through.

"This mansion has over thirty rooms," Nahema said softly, "You may sleep in whichever one you find to your liking. Food will be brought to your rooms if you so request."

Thirty goddamn rooms? Fantastic, a maze.

"Sanzo, don't you think it would be wise if-"

Sanzo already knew what Hakkai was going to say, and cut him off long before he could finish his sentence. There were many things Hakkai could talk him into. _That_ was not one of them. "No."

"But it would be-"

"I said no. It would be safer, yeah, but: A, I am not sleeping in the same room as you dimwits. B, this whole thing was your fault. Key word: _you_. If _you_ can't handle the mess _you _got_ yourselves_ into, by _yourselves_, then I daresay you aren't worth my time." He stalked off to the staircase, leading to the guest rooms above them, "Good night." He snapped.

VVVVV

Stupid, high and mighty, friggen monk. Genjo Sanzo, always pretending he was so fantastic just because he carried a banishing gun and a length of cloth and paper. Gojyo didn't know why, but that bothered him a hellova lot more than usual. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. He couldn't exactly remember what it was, but as far as he could tell, it had been a good dream.

He pursued the monk's path up the stairs and found his own room, a nice, warm room, with a bed big enough for two. His favorite kind…Maybe Miss Nahema could give a lonely soul a little visit during the night.

Now that he thought about it, that kid sister of hers had been pretty hott too. The kind of hott with two Ts that the dictionary doesn't recognize. So what if she'd been a little on the spooky side. As far as Gojyo could tell she was totally focused on feeding off Sanzo, what could _he_ have to worry about?

VVVVV

Sanzo was busy preparing. There was a chair in the room he'd chosen; already he'd torn off a leg of the chair. It had torn in an effective manner. Sanzo could easily imagine himself staking anything that tried to mess with him. He stuffed it into his belt and checked his banishing gun. Okay…when was the last time he'd made bullets? Sometime last week. He always made his own. Couldn't trust some nobody in some village to give him quality bullets. So he'd made a couple hundred. As far as he could tell he had maybe fifty left. What could he say; he liked being a walking artillery shed.

There was a knock on his door. It sent his headache back to pounding and he was about to snap back a "come in" but then remembered something about thresholds. About how vampires couldn't come in uninvited, but as soon as you let them in they could come in however much they pleased. "Hakkai?"

"Sanzo?"

"You're not coming in."

"Are you concerned about the threshold thing?"

"Yep."

"Can I come in though?"

"I'm not giving you permission."

There was a moment of silence, "Okay then," Hakkai said, "If I step through this door uninvited, do you promise not to shoot me?"

Sanzo tried to come back with an equally intelligent response, "If you truly are Cho Hakkai then you'd have nothing to worry about."

The younger man (although only by a year) entered the room; Sanzo sensed a demonic aura, but it was only the usual he got from Hakkai. "Okay," He started the conversation, "What do you want? You know how I hate word games."

"With all due respect, Sanzo. You pushed it yourself."

Sanzo took his attention from Hakkai to the stake in his hands; he started carving out the tip, to make it as sharp as possible. It was his way of changing the subject when he knew somebody else was right. "So what do you want?"

Hesitation crossed the green-eyed man's features, and then he walked over and shut the door behind him. He remained like that for a moment, leaning against the door with his hands resting behind him. This gave them the appearance of being tied behind him. That, plus the look on his face gave him the distinct manifestation of a thief in ancient Rome. Bound and awaiting execution at the claws of a lion pride. "I'm worried. We walked into this without choice. All we know is what we've heard about vampires. It bothers me, we've fought countless demons, but we know nothing of their kind. Like, will sunlight really kill them? What about a stake to the heart?"

Sanzo stopped and carefully eyed his very own stake, "I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough."

"That's also what I wanted to talk to you about. One of the things vampires are famous for is seducing those of the opposite sex. I'm worried about Gojyo. That fog, if it is indeed drugged and sent him a different dream. A more predatory dream to twist his mind he might not even fight any vampire that tries to feed off of him, or turn him."

Sanzo opened up the rotating carriage on his gun, eying the bullets carefully, making sure everything was clean, loaded, and generally not going to blow up in his face. "So? You can risk your life and babysit him if you want, but I'm not leaving this room unless those bastards break down the walls. By the way, if we do get into trouble, I saw a trap door that looked like it led to a cellar. If everything goes to crap, which I'm sure it will, make your way down there. It's the best place to defend from."

Hakkai only nodded. Must've admitted to himself it was futile. The green eyed man left and Sanzo went back to treating the stake to its sharpest possible point. Finding the right place on there with his hand he made a mock stab towards the wall.

The thought came that maybe he could get some water and bless it, then it occurred to him that he had no idea how to bless anything, much less water. His master never got around to covering it.

So much he could have taught me… 

Thoughts like that were always enough to make his old scars ache, and his head throb.

"You know…" That same silky smooth voice carried in through the window.

Screw the stake, he had his gun. By simple reflex, it was up and pointed at her.

Nahema was standing on the windowsill, the wind blowing her gray robe in various places, again leaving something to be desired beneath it. "Easy there vamp."

"Vamp? Is that all you think of me?" One pale leg slipped down into his room, bare foot softly touching the floor before sliding back up again. Like testing the water with your toe before diving in.

"I guess the threshold myth is crap."

She shrugged, "Yes and no. Actually threshold only applies when it's somebody's _home_. As in a place where you feel like you belong, you set down permanent roots that tie you there. If I'm to assume correctly, then you have no such place, Genjo Sanzo?"

"Leave." He hated to admit it, but that struck a cord. A really deep one that thrummed throughout his entire sinewy frame. With any luck it showed up as simple annoyance instead of the deep rage that it really was.

Nonetheless, she continued, as though she didn't expect him to actually shoot her. She switched faces, no longer the sexy seductress, more like a young girl teasing a boy she liked. "Of course, the threshold doesn't stop us unless it's a home where three or four generations at least have lived. Anything less and it just takes a huge chunk of our supernatural power as we enter."

"As much as I love trivia," Sanzo said, the gun as steady as ever, "Get the fuck out."

As you might imagine, she didn't get the fuck out as directed. But dropped from her perch on the windowsill into his room.

He would have shot her. But then remembered that thing about sanctuary. He supposed that meant if he shot their host the other vamps would have no reason not to rip his throat out…damn.

Sanzo stopped aiming the gun at her. It was no secret this whole thing was going to go to hell sometime that night, but he wouldn't be the cause of it. Leave that to the morons.

"You're very observant." Nahema said, still moving around the room. Slow, sexy motions. The face of the seductress was back. "You noticed that I have you under my protection. And that if you kill me you'll be at the mercy of my clan."

Sanzo stuffed the gun back into its holster in his sleeve. Irritated. By the time he glanced back up, she was there. One leg sensually brushed up against his. She was a lot faster than he gave her credit for. By reflex he jumped off the bed as fast as he possibly could. The first time he hit the ground irritated the burn on his leg. He ignored it and rolled back up onto his feet. "Don't come _any_ closer, bitch."

"…You know. I can personally lift the sanctuary any time I so please. Leaving you and your friends…completely alone…" As she said the last words, her hand adjusted her robe, stopping perhaps a millimeter before becoming indecent. "Or…you could have some company."

Sanzo had to admit…that was one tempting offer. The thought of settling down beside that heated, pale body, made him quiver in anticipation. Just to let it all go for one night. Care for nothing but the flesh beneath him…

_Hold nothing…_

Two words were all it took, words from his master that he'd held to his heart for the last ten years. He rose to his feet, and turned his back. It was probably the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.

Wait. Scratch that. Moving around when he had scorpion venom pumping through his veins defiantly beat it.

"Well then," He said, "I guess that means I can shoot you now, because I am defiantly _not_ going to screw you."

She smiled again; this time Sanzo could have sworn it was a real smile,

VVVVV

Gojyo never even felt her arrive. He only knew she was there by the slightly increased weight on the bed, and the lover's sigh by his ear. Unfortunately it was Trivania, damn, he was hoping for Nahema…

Whatever. Beggars couldn't always be choosers. He was just as happy to have her peroxide sister beside him as he would any other woman.

Trivania placed a soft, quick lick on his neck, working her way up his finely toned jaw all the way to his mouth. Gojyo lost himself in her, a strange numbness spread from where her kisses touched. He returned her kisses, soon finding the numbness to be replaced by pleasure. Purest, pleasure.

VVVVV

"What are you smirking about?"

"…I like you…" She said. "I was hoping you wouldn't accept. Allowing me to feed on you would have meant you waved all rights to Sanctuary. You and your friends-"

"Servants." Sanzo corrected curtly.

"Servants, would have been free game to any vampire who wished to feed."

Oh, a good thing then. Sanzo was about to make a rude demand, accompanied by either the term 'vampire whore' or 'bitch', when a sudden thought shot through his mind. A rather unpleasant one at that, "What if one of my companions accepted the company of another vampire? Like Madame Peroxide out there?"

"Then the sanctuary would be broken."

_Shit…_

He'd noticed they were writing the script. Sending them those dreams, somehow, he still didn't know how they did that. It was an attempt to twist their minds. Then Nahema came to them, giving them little choice but to accompany her back to her home. It was all a setup, he'd known that from the beginning, he'd just never intended to play by her rules. Hell, he still didn't. But now the playing field was tilted way more in her direction

Because if his estimations were correct, then their treaty was already broken. In the form of one stupid, kappa that couldn't keep his pants on.

_Double shit…_

Chapter end


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki or anything else that anybody in the known universe could sue me for. I own nothing.

AN: It's been a while. But at long last I think I have an idea of where I want this story to go. So hopefully it'll also run just a little bit smoother that before. Also, there were some reviews about the differences between succubus/vamps, which apparently I'm totally mucking up. But a) I call them vampires for the most part anyway. b) The succubus of myth didn't feed on someone's soul but their life energy. Seeing as how life isn't worth living without blood, I figured I could get away with the difference.

Succubus Nights

Goku didn't hear a scream. Or a cry. Or even the crunch of the vampire's fangs sinking into Gojyo's throat. At least not in a physical sense. He simply woke up with a very sick feeling in his stomach. He hadn't slept that well to begin with, after that look Nahema's kid sister gave Sanzo. It didn't take him more than a minute to slip on his day clothes.

Slowly he crept from his room, he'd picked the one just across the hall from Sanzo, like he always did. Crouching by the door, he heard voices hushed by the barrier. Slowly to prevent anyone being alerted to his presence, he opened the door. Sometimes, as much as he loved to go blundering in there, he knew that the element of surprise could be valuable. He peeked his golden eyes through the tiny crack he'd opened.

Goku saw Sanzo, and Nahema. She was crouching on the windowsill, catlike, and gorgeous in that same way. He swallowed the rising thought of how pretty she was...

Sanzo had the gun lowered at her, Goku bit his lip. At first, he hadn't felt so bad about this whole vampire idea, but ever since Trivania showed her teeth he couldn't get it out of his mind. Then a colder thought came to him, Sanzo wouldn't do anything stupid.

But Gojyo might...

Not bothering to shut the door, he slinked his way down the hall to where Gojyo had made his room. He actually missed a couple of times because he couldn't _exactly_ remember which room was Gojyo's. By the time he did, he wished he hadn't. The sight he saw was one he could have gone his whole life without.

The blond vampire's clothes must have been discarded a long time ago. Goku saw the curves of her body in the moonlight filing in through the open window. She was laying on top of Gojyo, whose clothes also seemed to have miraculously vanished. Gojyo laid there, crimson hair sprawled out on the pillow like some kind of demented halo, his muscular chest unmoving. Trivania suddenly arched her back, tossing her golden hair. With her mouth open Goku could easily see the jagged points of her teeth, and the thick, dark liquid dripping from them.

She suddenly jerked her head in his direction. Goku just stood there in stunned silence. It was only when Trivania flung herself from the bed and landed on him with her wiry body that his mind kicked back into real time. And he realized that Gojyo was in serious trouble and he had a vampire trying to bite his throat out. He had managed to get a hand right on her throat; another desperately holding her scratching arms back. He managed to hold one back, but the other hand made terrible scratches on the right side of his face. In one fortunate moment, he managed to get a leg between his body and her stomach. Tearing her away from him. Maybe in his stunned state he used a little more force than he should have. He flung the vampire across the room. Amazingly she twisted and landed elegantly on her feet. She shot him a short, arrogant smile, "You can't defeat me now boy. This close to feeding. I am _far_ too strong for you."

With a jerk of his hand, his staff instantly materializing into his hand. Whether or not he could defeat her, he at least had to stop her. She'd taken a lot of blood from Gojyo, just by looking at him he could see that the half-breed wasn't breathing. Sanzo and Hakkai could take care of themselves; right now he knew his priority was to get his other friend to safety. "Whatever you say! But I'm still gonna take you down!"

"Mmm." She licked the residue of blood from her lips, "Courageous. Loyal. I shall enjoy feeding on you. As an appetizer to the priest of-"

Goku didn't give her time to finish her 'evil villain speech' instead he moved with speed fueled by need. And swung his staff at her jaw like it was a Louisville Slugger. She craned her neck backwards at the last second to avoid it; even so he felt the satisfying crack of the staff against her cheek. It was enough force to fling her to the side. Stunning her enough that she couldn't gather her wits in time to land on her feet. Instead flying straight into the wall with a dull crack of bone and flesh. She seemed still as she lay there, but in the space between his panicked heartbeats Goku knew she wouldn't be down long. Goku moved quickly, grabbing Gojyo (after taking a moment to wrap him in his sheet) up into a fireman's carry then jumping out the window onto the ground below.

Now, he hadn't necessarily looked before leaping like Sanzo always taught him. Time once again dropped into slow motion as he glided downward into the crowd of hungry vampires beneath his feet.

VVVVV

Sanzo flew from his position on the floor, much to the complaint of his leg. In his frenzy he ignored the vampire on the bed entirely. Almost the second he staggered out of his room a wave of malicious intent slammed into him. But he felt it too late, not even having enough time to bring his gun to level with the monster charging him before the thing knocked him to the ground with unforeseen strength. Sanzo hit the ground in an uncontrolled roll; the vampire dove for his throat. The priest barely had time to think, all he could do was thrust up his gun arm between the vampire's gaping jaws and his neck. Forced to ignore the fire burning in his arm upon contact with the dagger-like fangs, he dropped his gun into his left hand, and blew the vamp away.

"Shit." He grunted as he examined the wound. Those fangs had bitten right through his glove.

Suddenly, an inhuman shriek came from behind him. Sanzo slammed his back onto the floor just as a second vampire flew over his head. She twisted in midair to land on all fours, then hissed at him, exposing her long fangs. He shot her behind the shoulder. The female vampire fell to the ground, writhing but not dead. Never being one to waste a bullet, Sanzo grabbed the stake he'd made earlier, then using all the strength he could muster, drove it deep into the vampire's chest.

Nothing so great happened as turning to dust, or goo, or go into violent spasms. She just stopped moving. Sanzo supposed it was just as well, if something cool like that had happened he might have been persuaded to stay and watch. As it were he could hear calls and hisses from both ends of the hallway. It hit him that Nahema was probably the most dangerous vampire of them all. If what she said was true and she was the queen, than that meant she was the oldest, probably the strongest. Now that he thought about it her appearance was more human than the other vampires. Her fangs weren't as defined as others in the village, and the other vampires hadn't made him feel anywhere near the way Nahema did.

Sanzo spun back into his room to finish her, or at least use her as a hostage. Naturally the vampire was nowhere to be seen. He was about to turn around when a sudden pressure clasped his shoulder.

His heart skipped a beat and he found himself pointing his gun at Hakkai.

"Damn it Hakkai!" He snarled.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"You didn't!"

Hakkai nodded, "Right."

Suddenly, Hakkai dropped and rose, bringing an elbow into a vampire's stomach. In perfect use of his more elegant fighting style he pivoted on his left foot and sent a perfectly measured blast of chi in her direction. She collapsed in a charred pile of dust.

"Woah," Hakkai said, "I guess Chi-Gong is nearly as effective as sunlight."

"Guess later. Walk now." Sanzo had already jerked the full of his robe on again and used a ripped bed sheet to bandage his wounded arm. "So, do you have any idea where Goku is?"

"I don't know. I went to his room but he wasn't there."

Sanzo nodded, he wasn't too concerned about Goku. As gullible as the kid was he could handle his own weight, "Right. And the dickhead?--Duck."

Hakkai ducked, giving Sanzo ample time to make a nice hole in the head of the vampire coming from behind. Hakkai stood up, and delivered a swift roundhouse kick at another vampire, snapping the neck in the most stylish of ways. "If by 'dickhead' you mean Gojyo then I don't know either. I went to his room but there was blood on the sheets. No sign of Gojyo."

"Blood. Enough to kill?"

"No, but there's no telling how much that vampire drank." They were running out into the hall by now. As Hakkai stepped out he illuminated their way with a royal blue glow. There was a flurry of inhuman shrieks as the light touched the creatures hiding in the shadows. "My turn for questions: Why did this happen? Why are they attacking us _now_?"

Sanzo shrugged as he reloaded, "Far as I can tell we were under Nahema's protection. But if any of us accepted the company of a vampire we would wave any right to it."

Hakkai pieced the rest together, "Ah, so when Gojyo slept with one of them..."

"He screwed the rest of us over, yes. Why do we have to have so many reruns of the 'Stupid Kappa Causes a Giant Cluster-Disaster That the Rest of Us Have to Deal With Show'?"

Hakkai didn't reward that with a response.

They were making their way towards the staircase now, Hakkai holding a ball of chi. As it turned out the light from it seemed to bother vampires, and if they got a direct dosing of energy then it was just as good as the sunlight myth. So naturally Hakkai took point, while Sanzo watched their six by firing a never ending stream of bullets. He managed to kill or wound several vampires who got over their fear of the rain of lead and tried to attack. Meanwhile Hakkai took care of the majority of their frontal attackers. When they reached the stairs things got considerably more difficult. Sanzo was forced to watch both where he was stepping and he had to use his left hand to shoot, because his right hand had become so overwhelmed with pain he didn't think he could hold it straight anymore. But worst of all was the pain coming from his right leg, where the cloth from his robes was brushing against the burn with every movement. It hurt like hell. If he recalled, Dante's version of Hell included fire and the burns to go along with it. So that statement was actually quite literal.

He took only a heartbeat to marvel at where his mind could wander in the midst of a quite possibly life threatening situation. Without warning a vampire threw herself onto the staircase, Sanzo didn't think, just smacked her with his gun (a very handy blunt weapon as well as projectile). Wet, thick blood poured from her cut cheek. Sanzo bent down and lifted her up and over the side of the staircase, then got right back to work reloading.

As he looked down into the entrance hall, he almost got a rush of terror at the sight of maybe fifty vampires crammed into that little space. Practically falling over each other to get up the staircase. They were in the middle of a feeding frenzy. And where the hell was Goku?

"Hakkai!" He was now standing back to back with the healer.

"Sanzo..." Hakkai panted, "I can't...keep this up."

"Okay..." He pondered it, if Hakkai couldn't last much longer, and he would run out of bullets eventually; then there was only one option they had. "I'm going to use the scripture, be careful. I'll will it away from you as much as I can, but if it touches you there won't be much I can do."

Hakkai didn't respond, just pressed closer to Sanzo. He would be safer close to the monk than farther away.

The priest closed his eyes, tapping into the scripture's great power through a nearly inaudible chant. Power over darkness, the power to banish evil, to pull it into the abyss; that was what the scripture's purpose was. To keep the darkness in check on earth. As he tapped into it, he could feel the way the power was used before him. First to forge heaven and Shang-Gri La then as it was passed down from the hands of one Sanzo priest to another. It was that ancient, beautiful power he tapped into, and he knew it was a great honor to do so. This power thrummed through his body, resonating through his chest and making his bones rattle in place. After a second that felt like eternity he opened his eyes and howled the battle cry: "Makai Tenjo!"

The scripture exploded in a brilliant light, as brilliant as the sun and life itself. The power that had filled his body spilled out in the form of deadly paper tendrils. He was the catalyst of the scripture's energy. That was why people who weren't Sanzo priests couldn't use it; people viewed the scriptures as something that could be used. When in reality they couldn't be more wrong. The scriptures flowed through their bearers and gave them extra energy, the Sanzo priest had to know how to reach that hidden strength, and know that it came with a price. Said price being that you could very easily kill yourself by draining too much of your own energy after you finished with the scripture's, as with Hakkai's chi-gong. Sanzos had to be strong both physically and mentally to use their scriptures often.

The light stunned the vampires, forcing them to cower in shock and fear. Which was closely followed by the scripture itself, turning them to dust. It was as he stood in this light, the intimate moment where he was connected to his scripture, that he realized that all the vampires turning to dust were female. Nahema. Blondie. That woman standing guard outside the entrance to the dark city. All female...

Now, what that could possibly mean Sanzo had no idea, but it had to mean something. A wave of dizziness overcame him, and he knew he was close to through with the scripture's leant power. If he went any farther he would begin to tap into his own reserves of life energy. Too much of that and there would be nothing to keep his heart beating.

More vampires turned to dust; still he maintained the steady flow of energy towards destroying the vampires. At the same time he struggled to keep it away from Hakkai. For it was far easier to direct the force at something than keep it away.

"Sanzo!"

He heard the voice, but it was more like an echo as he very quickly drifted away. Sanzo had never used the scripture this long before, and it was taking it's toll.

VVVVV

Hakkai would have to tell Sanzo to quit smoking if he intended to ever use the scripture like this again. As he watched his friend continually get paler in the glow he pondered on what to do. Leaving the virtual shadow of his friend would risk getting killed by the scripture. "Sanzo!" He called, getting no response.

"Sanzo! You've got to stop! It'll kill you!"

Again...no repsonse.

Damnit. Hakkai had to think of something. Fortunately for Sanzo, this was not a difficult task for Hakkai.

Gathering what remained of his energy in his fist, he reached up into the barrage of cloth and paper. It worked just as he had hoped. The small force field of chi energy allowed the scriptures to bounce off his hand and leave him unharmed. The demon brought his fist up, and clipped Sanzo crisply on the jaw.

Sanzo dropped to the ground in a heap, the light immediately ceasing and the scripture shrinking back to normal size.

Both men lay on the staircase, panting, dust all around them. "Well," Hakkai said as he brushed off his green tunic, "At least that wasn't hard or anything..."

"Tell me...about it..." Sanzo said between heavy, labored breaths.

"You should really quit smoking..."

"Bite...Me..."

Hakkai was the first to shove himself to his feet. "Common, we aren't safe here. We've got to get to that cellar. From there we can device a new strategy."

Sanzo nodded, swallowed, and struggled to his feet, swaying a little. Hakkai reached out a hand to steady him for fear he'd survive the vampire assault just to go tumbling down the stairs.

VVVVV Chapter End

AN: Okay, no real author note, except: please review.


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